a very hard ductile silvery-white metallic element occurring principally in molybdenite: used mainly in alloys, esp to harden and strengthen steels. Symbol: Mo; atomic no: 42; atomic wt: 95.94; valency: 2–6; relative density: 10.22; melting pt: 2623°C; boiling pt: 4639°C
Word origin
C19: from New Latin, from Latin molybdaena galena, from Greek molubdaina, from molubdos lead
molybdenum in American English
(məˈlɪbdənəm)
noun
a very hard, lustrous, silver-white metallic chemical element, used in alloys, pointsfor spark plugs, etc.: symbol, Mo; at. no., 42
Word origin
ModL: so named (1781) by K. W. Scheele (see scheelite) after its isolation by P. J. Hjelm (1746-1813), Swed chemist < molybdaena, molybdenite, term used because of resemblance to lead ore < L molybdaena, lead, galena < Gr molybdaina, piece of lead < molybdos, lead
Examples of 'molybdenum' in a sentence
molybdenum
About eighteen per cent nickel, plus cobalt, titanium and molybdenum.
Adam, Paul A NASTY DOSE OF DEATH (1996)
They'd do an open pit operation on the molybdenum deposits up there.